Streams of Fire
by Gr33n Knight
Summary: Jonathan Roland joined the UNSC to get revenge in the Covenant for killing his sister, the only family he had. That was 17 years ago. Now he is on Reach, and he is truly in for the fight of his life.


**Prologue**

The battery of my wrist computer was dead. Of all times for it to happen, the nearly limitless energy source that powered it had gone out. I stared at the black screen, my reflection showing clearly, despite the long crack running through it. It was the first time in fifteen years that I had seen my face. I had always been too busy, too focused to spend time in front of a mirror. I gazed now into eyes that seemed unfamiliar, a face covered with scars that I could barely remember, and a short crop of hair much different from the long style of my adolescence. Gray patches were just starting to appear, odd, considering my age of 35. I guess that's what war does to a man. I pulled the busted contraption off my bleeding forearm, and threw it to the charred dirt. I put my hands to my face, holding back the tears of a battle gone bad, continuing them upwards through my graying hair. Then, as if a switch had turned off, my arms dropped, lifeless, to the ground. I no longer had the energy, nor the will to move, the day had drained all hope from me.

I sat in silence, leaning against the useless warthog, watching the landscape around me burning. Reach was glassed, but for some reason, where I was had been left untouched. I watched what were once mountains flicker behind the heatwaves of the superheated surface. I heard the fizzling of the air around me as the temperature continued to rise. I felt the sweat dripping from my beaten brow. My senses were ablaze with the symphonies of a dying planet, and all I could do was wait, wait until I joined it. Reach's last hour had arrived, and I had been unfortunate enough to be stranded on it. Strangely, my thoughts veered away from my situation, and drifted towards my past. I put my head back, staring into the fiery sky. I watched a Covenant cruiser drifting silently overhead, its purple hull creating a stark contrast against the orange and crimson sky. It flickered with the flames of a burning world, its plasma weapons finally finished. I stared at it for what seemed like hours, and then I finally closed my eyes, and drifted off into another world.

**Chapter 1**

I didn't have what you would call an easy childhood. My father left when I was young, and my mother was never really there. When she died my sister and I were left alone. There weren't enough people on Jericho VII at the time to have an established census, nobody even knew she was dead. Raising my sister alone wasn't easy. I was only 13. That's why I turned to the insurrectionists. They took the two of us in and helped us survive. They were the closest thing to a family I ever got. I lived for five years with them, and when I turned 18, I enlisted with them. It wasn't long after that when everything went wrong.

In the year 2535, only 2 months after I joined the Insurrection, the Covenant found us. Sirens sounded and screams of panic chilled me to the core. I watched in horror as a purple, forked drop ship descended on our camp. I felt fear stiffen my body as Covenant troops poured out of it and began their assault. Then I felt panic as I remembered that my sister was still inside. As I ran towards the quarters we had shared, I tried to hold back images of what could have happened to her if the aliens got there first. I reached the door, out of breath, and my skin froze as I saw the broken down door and the burning walls within. As I searched the rooms for my sister, tears streaming down my face, I glanced out of the window. There, taking cover behind a wall, were three of my fellow Innie soldiers, and my sister. I ran to the window, and she saw me, a smile crossing her worried face. Before I could leave the window to meet her, the wall exploded behind the soldiers sending them flying as they burned from the plasma explosion. My sister was knocked onto the ground, but that was not my main concern, as a figure emerged from the smoldering hole in the wall, opening its four mandibles wide in a battle cry. As I turned from the window to protect her, another blast hit the building I was in, collapsing the ceiling and trapping me in the room. My sister screamed in terror, and the creature turned to see her crawling backwards, too terrified to get to her feet and run. I could only watch in horror as the beast slowly drew its firearm and fired. I screamed in anger and pounded the window, but I could not even come close to breaking the nearly indestructible panes that the Insurrection installed in every building. Luckily for me, my screams did not penetrate the glass either, and the Elite did not hear me. It simply turned and pointed towards the heart of the base, opening its mandibles wide in what must have been a battle cry, as scores more Covenant poured from the hole, weapons drawn. The vibrations of plasma mortar fire shook the earth around me as I huddled on the floor, crying as I relived my sister's death over and over again in my mind.

The next morning, I rose from my corner and began moving the rubble aside so I could get out of there. The Covenant had quickly moved on, and when I freed myself from what had been my prison, my sister's body still lay where she had been shot down. I walked to it, too tired to cry, and, without looking at her now mutilated chest, I closed her eyelids. I could do nothing more, and I stood, renewed anger and vigor coursing through me. I vowed that I would make the Covenant pay for what they'd done, and that I would avenge my sister's death if it killed me. However, as I turned to make my way to the nearby city of Franton, I heard a whirring sound. Moments later, a group of UNSC pelican drop ships sailed overhead, slowed to a stop, and came low for a landing. Being an Insurrectionist, instinct told me to take cover. I climbed onto the roof of the building through which the elite had come, and stared down at my sister's serene body. The wind from the pelicans blowing her long, brown hair across her face. Marines marched into the compound, taking a moment to mourn the fallen all around them. A few of them stopped and began to talk directly below me as the others began to move the bodies aside.

"Can you believe this?" One of the marines said, "This was an Innie stronghold, and the Covenant just tore through it like it was nothing!"

"I know" a second marine spoke solemnly, motioning towards my sister, "No mercy, she couldn't have been more than 13 years old. This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night." The marines removed their helmets as a show of respect to the fallen, as the third marine spoke up.

"This is why we need to destroy these bastards! This is why we fight marines, and don't you forget it!" Judging by his words, I assumed he was the leader of this particular group of soldiers, a quick peek at his shoulder confirmed that he was the sergeant. I became lost in thought as to why the UNSC would come here now, after everyone was dead, when I was snapped back into reality. One of the marines was bending down to pick up my sister's body. Enraged, I screamed and jumped down onto the marine's shoulders.

"Don't touch her! Don't touch my sister!" was all I could get out before two more marines pulled me off of their comrade, tears streaming down my face. The sergeant looked over in surprise, then walked in my direction, a puzzled look on his face.

"You survived this, son?" He asked, shocked that anyone could have survived. I couldn't speak, just lowered my head and nodded. "What's your name, boy?"

"J-Jonathan," I replied quietly, then again with more confidence. This could very well be how I can get revenge. "Jonathan Roland, sir"

"And that's your little sister there?" I nodded solemnly. "I am very sorry, son, but she's gone. There's nothing left to do for her now." I looked up in protest, but he resumed before I could speak. "There are millions more people left on this planet, and we're gonna need this and many other places as military strongholds if we're gonna keep those people safe. Do you hear me?" He spoke softly and caringly, aware of the sadness I was feeling. I nodded silently as more tears welled in my eyes. " We need to move your sister if we're gonna get vehicles in here." I nodded once more, and the marine whom I had attacked, knelt down to pick up her body, this time, with no protest from me. "We will have time for burials later, but for now, I have a feeling you need some food and some rest, now come with me." He nodded to the marines holding my arms and they released me. The sergeant led me to his pelican, and we sat in the back seats as the former Innie base became a UNSC stronghold. The sergeant's name was Lewis, and he sat quietly with me into the afternoon before I spoke.

"I want to join" I mumbled.

"What was that?" He asked, unsure of what I had said.

"I want to join, to enlist." I spoke up this time.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, son. Not yet." I looked up in confusion and anger, and he noticed. "Right now, you are delusional with guilt and revenge from your sister's death. The life of a soldier isn't all glory and greatness, like the movies make it out to be. The life of a soldier faces more grief and more death than any man can take for too long. If you truly want to be a marine, you have to be prepared to lose everything close to you, to see all your friends die in front of your eyes, to see complete and utter hopelessness and devastation."

"Sir, I already have." He nodded slowly and closed his eyes.

"Indeed you have, son, but I still can't let you make that call, not until you've had some time to clear your head and think it through. I don't want you throwing your life away over a guilt-ridden whim like so many men do nowadays. You're gonna stick with me until we get off this rock, then we'll see about signing you up." Before I could protest, Sergeant Lewis stood up, and walked towards his new command center in the middle of the base, giving orders to another marine to let me sit and think, and when the time comes, to take me to his office.

As night approached, and the two, red suns of Jericho VII set, I continued to mourn my sister's death, and continued to mull over what Sergeant Lewis had said to me. As the second of Jericho's four moons approached its zenith in the sky, I stood, and the marine led me to the Sergeants office, where he was poring over maps of the area, a 3-D hologram of the planet rotating slowly on the corner. As I entered the room, he stood and nodded. The marine saluted, and left the room. We both sat down, and he began to speak. "Now I have a transport headed here in 3 hours to take us outta here to the destroyer _Three if by Space_, and until then, I want you to get some rest. I have a bed prepared for you by the -" He stopped mid-sentence, and we listened as plasma fire sounded from outside. "Ah, hell." he cursed "Looks like you'll have to rest later, they found us, son. We've got a long three hours ahead of us."

Once outside, the Sergeant seemed confused. "They're usually much more aggressive than this." he said, "Something's up, son, and I don't like it." He pulled out a radio, and contacted his second-in command. "Corporal, what's goin on up there?"

"Sir! It's just grunts sir," a static-filled voice replied over the intercom, "nothing but a few grunts and a jackal. It's too weird Sergeant, this doesn't feel right."

"No elites? No brutes? Are you sure they aren't just cloaked?"

"We're sure sir, we've got heat signatures and IR sensors. Nothing but grunts and a jackal."

The Sergeant's brow furrowed with confusion. The Covenant sending a single unit against a fully armed base didn't make any sense. "Well, take 'em out just the same, and keep an eye out for any elites, they may have upgraded their cloaking tech." He finally replied to the Corporal. He pocketed the radio and sat back down, stroking his chin in concentration. "Why would they just send one unit against an entire base?" He though out loud. As I thought, an idea struck me.

" Maybe they don't want to take the base?" I replied. "Maybe they just want to keep you busy?"

"Busy? Busy for what?" The Sergeant asked. Then a voice sounded over the comm.

"Attention all personnel on the surface of Jericho VII. This is Commander Gregory Harris of the UNSC Destroyer _Three if by Space_, the covenant are dipping towards the planets surface, presumably to begin glassing. I am ordering total evacuation of the surface. I repeat, full evacuation is now in effect. All UNSC personnel to retreat to orbit. All UNSC personnel to retreat to orbit. This message will now repeat." Sergeant Lewis turned the comm. off.

"Damn!, that pilot better high-tail it over here if we're gonna get out of this!" He picked up the comm. and began broadcasting to the ship. "Come in, Commander Harris. This is Sergeant Renato Lewis requesting immediate evac, over."

"Sergeant Lewis, this is Commander Harris, your pilot just left to pick your boys up, don't you worry, she'll be there soon. Good luck, Sergeant." the Sergeant breathed a sigh of relief. But it didn't last long. Screams and explosions came from outside, and the Corporal came in over the radio.

"Sir, they're everywhere sir!"

"Damn it, Corporal! What's everywhere? What's happening out there?"

"The elite's sir, they just dropped down from the sky, like the ODST's do sir, hundreds of pods! We can't keep 'em back for long!" The Sergeant sat down, dumbfounded, then his head shot up and he grabbed the comm.

"Commander Harris!, this is Sergeant Lewis, come in!"

"What is it, Sergeant? I've got way too many things going on right now, your pilot's on her way!" The Commander responded, clearly much more stressed than during their last talk with him.

"Sir! The Covenant cruisers, aren't glassing, sir! They came in close to drop thousands of elites down on our heads! They're going to target the evac centers, all the citizens are fleeing to their deaths! Call of the evac, sir! Warn the survivors before it's too late!" The silence alone showed how shocked the Commander was. The time seemed to stretch on as he decided what to do.

"Sergeant, get your men outta there. We don't have the forces to protect against that many elites. We have to pull back, save what we can."

"Sir! We can't just leave the people to die -"

"We don't have a choice, now I want you to evac your men. That's an order, soldier."

"...Yes, sir." Sergeant Lewis relied angrily. The comm. went dead and he threw it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. He yelled in anger and tipped his desk, kicking through the cheap wood pressboard that made up its surface. I stared in horror, unable to move while I sat in my chair, the full impact of the news sinking in. The Sergeant sat down and rested his head in his hands. I was about to speak, but the radio spoke first.

"Sergeant! This is Private Sims! We're being massacred out here, sir! We're down to only a few men, Corporal Reid is dead, we need back-up sir!"

"Sims, our pilot is just about here, I'm on my way out there now, just try to hold out as long as you can!" there was no reply. "Damn," the Sergeant cursed "Guess we'd better get out there, son. Here!" He tossed me an MA5k assault rifle. "You aim it at the enemy and pull the trigger, and try not to get shot yourself, we've got about 5 minutes until our transport arrives."

"Sir!" I replied "Yes, sir!" We ran out to where the last few marines were left, hundreds of plasma bolts whizzing overhead. There were three marines left, Private Sims was nowhere to be seen. The men looked relieved to see the Sergeant, but another volley of plasma quickly wiped the expression from their faces. The elites kept their distance. They knew that we were pinned down, there was no need for them to charge in. I took a peek over the barrier, now nearly evaporated by plasma, and saw hundreds of elites, using their own drop pods as cover.

The Sergeant, Private Le, and I were the only three left when we heard the whirring of a pelican approaching. Through the smoke of evaporated stone and dirt, we could make out the distinct outline of the UNSC drop ship and made a break for it. It was touching down on the far end of the base to avoid the onslaught of elites. The elites pursued us, and the Private was shot down about halfway there, but we continued, unable to help. Once we rounded the corner, the pelican was in view, and a marine was on a turret in the back. As the elites followed around the corner, the marine opened fire, and the elites followed suit. Bullets and plasma alike arced over our heads as we neared the drop ship. We were within reach of the ship when the Sergeant let out a cry of pain. I looked back to see his chest had become a gaping hole, plasma had burned through. He dropped down, unable to continue on. I stopped and tried to drag him onto the ship, unable to let the man who I had befriended die just yet. He stopped me, by grabbing my arm.

"No. Leave me here, you need to get out of here. I'm gone, there's no saving me now." He spoke softly and with difficulty.

"No, I'm not letting you die here, not like this." I yelled over the hiss of plasma and the sharp reports of turret gunfire.

"This is what I was talking about, son. You have to be prepared for losses. If you really  
want to be a soldier, you need to be able to move on. Now get on that pelican. That's an order." I waited, unsure of what to do. As his words sunk in, the conflicting emotions fought over and over in my head.

"What the hell are you doing, kid!" The marine on the turret yelled. "We gotta get outta here!" He continued to fire on the elites, plasma scorching the reinforced hull of the pelican. I didn't have a choice, I boarded the pelican.

The pilot leaned back and asked "Where is everybody?" I looked back to the Sergeant, who gave me a nod.

"I am everybody." I whispered back.

"Damn." The pilot remarked, shocked. " Alright, then. We're breakin' outta here, hang on!" As we rose, the marine stopped firing the turret, and I watched the Sergeant raise his gun and begin firing. Another plasma bolt hit him in the arm, melting the gun and rendering the limb useless. He fumbled with his left arm and pulled out a grenade. As an elite neared him and pulled out its glowing energy sword, Sergeant Lewis pulled the pin. The elite stood over him and raised the weapon high. The pelican turned and the wall blocked my view. I heard a muffled explosion, and the man who had just changed my life ceased to exist.

**Chapter 2**

The pelican ride was quiet, the pilot, the marine (Corporal Walker, as I had seen on his uniform), and I didn't speak, all three of us in shock at how so many men had been killed so quickly. The night was almost over, and the first of the two suns were about to show over the horizon. We were almost out of the atmosphere when the pilot cursed under her breath. "What is it?" Corporal Walker asked.

"You see this bright orange star right in front of us?" Walker and I leaned forward to see it. "That was our ship. That was the _Three if by Space_." We sat in silence again.

"So what do we do now?" Walker mumbled.

"We gotta find another ship. Stand by while I try to contact one of the others." She relayed a message and we waited. 10 minutes passed until the comm. sounded.

"Attention UNSC personnel from the destroyer _Three if by Space_," a male voice sounded, "This is Captain Le Blanc of the UNSC Destroyer _Resolute_. Your ship has been destroyed by Covenant cruisers, if you want a way out of this mess, I suggest you head this way. The Covenant has begun glassing the far side of the planet and will soon make their way to the rest of it. Good luck and Godspeed." The pilot changed her course for the _Resolute_, and we all breathed sighs of relief in knowing that we had a place to go. I thought we were home free, but as soon as we got through the atmosphere, the real battle was revealed. The charred and molten fragments of our destroyer, along with those of others and even a few Covenant ships, drifted slowly towards the planet's surface like an artificial asteroid field. The super-heated plasma bolts from the Covenant ships, and the massive slugs of the UNSC MAC cannons darted back and forth, adding to the debris, and lighting the battlefield as the twin suns rose. I knew that if our pilot wasn't careful, we'd all be dead. As we drew nearer to the _Resolute_, a bolt of plasma flew by just in front of the pelican. Lucky for us, heat can't travel through the vacuum of space, otherwise, the cockpit would have melted clean off. Despite the dangerous conditions on the way, we arrived in the hangar without a hitch. we touched down inside. The pilot turned towards me, I hadn't really paid her much attention before. She was most likely in her early twenties, pale skin, and she carried an attitude of confidence that I would later learn to be commonplace among pilots.

"Guess we made it, huh kid?" she asked me, flashing a smile. I was sure she was just trying to take my mind of the tragedy of what had so recently happened, and I appreciated the gesture. "My name's Lukenowski, Tracy Lukenowski, but you can call me Lady Luck, or just plain Luck."

"I'm Jonathan Roland" I replied, "'Glad to meet you"

"You a civilian? You're one lucky son-of-a-bitch to make it out of a firefight like that."

" I won't be a civilian much longer, I'm going to enlist."

"Well good luck to ya, kid. Hope you don't find yourself in a situation like today..." This brought the memories of my sister and Sergeant Lewis flooding back into my mind. "Looks like we're not the only ones who made it out, Luck remarked, motioning to the particularly heavily scarred pelican just touching down in the hangar. "Damn, that bird's taken some damage, I hope my baby won't ever get to be that worn down, I don't know if I'd be able to - " Luck froze mid-sentence as the pelican' passengers emerged into the hangar. They were huge, probably about two meters tall, and they wore heavy armor that looked alien than any human armor I'd ever seen. "No way..." Luck finally got out, " Spartans, and a bunch of em too!" she seemed to be in disbelief.

"What's a Spartan?" I asked, unsure of what to make of these giant men.

"Nobody really knows, kid." Luck replied, a distant tone in her voice, likely still involved in thoughts on these 'Spartans.' Her eyes never left them as she continued to speak. "Some say they're not even human, just robots or even aliens themselves. Some say they're the best of the best, who were recruited and given armor. Some say even crazier things than that, but technically, according to ONI, they don't even exist." I'd heard about ONI, 'the spooks' as most people called them. They didn't want to be messed with, and I wasn't about to make them angry. If the Spartans were under ONI, I was going to keep my distance.

"Drop ship Bravo 592" Le Blanc grumbled over the radio. "Report to the bridge, I'd like to have a word."

"You heard the man!" Walker insisted, "Let's get movin' on the double!" Walker, Luck, and I made our way to the bridge, happy to leave the Spartans behind us. We arrived at the bridge, and my eyes were instantly drawn to the view of Jericho VII from the thick window of the Resolute's bridge. When I snapped out of my reverie, I was surprised to see Luck and Walker saluting Le Blanc. I turned to see Le Blanc looking towards me, noticing that I was only a civilian.

"At ease." He ordered, my two companions lowered their arms. "Now, this is just a formality. I've called you here let you know that you are now a functioning unit of my crew, and that you are to do as I say. Is that clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" Luck and Walker quickly replied. I was not quite sure what to do or say. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to speak, and I wasn't sure if he was even talking to me at all, or just to the other two.

"What about you, son?" He asked me, lowering his voice from that of a commanding officer to that of a concerned chaperone. "Do you want to be a part of my ship or not?"

"I-I don't know sir." I said, a little intimidated by the implications of the question. " I lost a lot in the last few days. In fact, I've lost everything, and I really don't know what to do, sir." He nodded, understanding my sentiments.

"Let me know if you change your mind, I can use every hand I can get." He turned to Walker. "Corporal," Walker snapped to attention, "I'm assigning you to a squad under Sergeant Yang, you'll find them on level 3. Dismissed." Walker promptly turned and left, as Le Blanc focused on Luck. "Flight Officer Lukenowski," Luck turned her attention to Le Blanc, "I lost a few of my own pilots today, You're gonna need to fill in. Are you up to it?"

"Sir, yes sir!" Luck answered.

"You know where to go then, pilot. Dismissed." She made her exit just as Walker did, leaving me alone with Le Blanc. He turned back to me. "I want you to report to level 4." He began scribbling something on sheet of paper. "You're going to ask for a Private Williams, and you will give him this." He handed me the paper. "He will provide you with a bunk, a uniform, and a firearm. Even though you aren't a marine, if all goes to hell, you're gonna need to be. Dismissed." I stood for a minute, as Le Blanc turned back to his work. I backed up and leaned against the wall as he muttered something to a staff member, and I let my mind wander. I thought about my sister, about Sergeant Lewis, and even about my mother.

The door next to me opened, jarring me from my memories, and my eyes stayed glued to the figure who had entered. It was a Spartan. From this close, I could see how huge he really was. I wondered, like many before me, if, behind that shiny visor and armor, there was even a person. I found it hard to imagine a man that big. He walked to the Captain, and they had a brief conversation, but I couldn't make out what they were saying from my spot. Before long, the Spartan turned and stood, watching the planet, and my eyes shifted from his immense form to see the Covenant ships sending streams of fire to the surface. The Covenant was glassing my planet, my home, and the image would forever be imprinted in my memory.

**Chapter 3**

I looked around at my squad as we made our way towards the surface. I saw the anticipation and fear in the eyes of Private Reynolds. This was going to be his first engagement, and everyone else in the pelican knew it would probably be his last. Looking around, I saw the sadness in everyone else's eyes. They knew there was no hope for this planet. Once the Covenant found a human colony, they glassed it. That was how it worked, how it had been for every planet previous to this one. Reynolds looked hopeful though, despite his fear. He and I both knew that this was one of the strongest human worlds, and that the UNSC wasn't going to let the Covenant take Reach without a fight, but only I knew that they couldn't win. I looked to my Corporals, Nguyen and Sharpe. We had all seen multiple glassings, but something told me that it was different this time. A shimmer of hope, perhaps, or it could have just been my stomach dropping as our pelican dove into the atmosphere. It didn't really matter.

As we neared the planet, I looked out the window in the cockpit and watched the planet grow in my vision. I could see one of Reach's crater lakes and watched the clouds drift over it. My mind was captured by the beauty of it, and then we hit the atmosphere, jarring the pelican. Flames slowly obscured the view, but the effect was lasting. I was not going to give up on this planet.

"We're entering the atmosphere now, Sergeant." Luck reported. "ETA in ten minutes."

"Noted" I replied. After that fateful day on Jericho VII, Luck had been my designated pilot. She'd aged into her forties since then, but she still had that same attitude of confidence. I stood up from my seat, barely able to stand from the shaking of the bird, and entered the cockpit. I looked out of the side window, and watched a neighboring pelican.

It was quiet, almost soothing. Then a loud mess of sound came through on the radio. As the static cleared, I distinguished it to be flip music, a loud, harsh sounding music that came from an archaic type of noise from the 21st century.

"Staff Sergeant, is that you?" Luck shouted over the noise.

"You bet your sweet ass it is, Lukenowski." Staff Sergeant Johnson sounded, "Gettin' you and your cargo pumped up for the battle, ma'am."

"Pumped up how, Johnson? Torture may excite you, but I for one don't roll that way." Corporal Sharpe sneered. "Why aren't you on your way down here with us, anyway?"

"Oh, I've got something to do up here in orbit, a bit of clean up. But don't you worry your pretty little head, soldier, I'll be down there before you know it to save your ass."

"I think we'll be the ones saving you, Sarge." Sharpe commented.

"Haha, I'd like to see that, Corporal."

"If I remember correctly, sir, we've pulled you out of a few hairy situations in the past. Remember Arcadia?"

"Arcadia? You mean when I saved you from those hunters you tried to ambush?"

"The way I remember it, Sarge, those hunters were trapping you in a corner when I opened fire. They'd have torn you up, sir."

"Ha! I was just about to take them out when you distracted me with your 'crazy tactics!' Two hunters ain't no match for Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson! I-" The comm. went out, and the music stopped.

"Well, at least we can think now." Luck remarked. That got a few chuckles out of the men. By now, the red flames had lessened, and I could see the surface again. I returned to my seat and prepped for insertion. I grabbed my trusty Assault Rifle, the same one I had been given on board the Resolute in orbit of the glassed Jericho VII. Over the years, the gun had been worn by my hands, seared by close misses of plasma, and gouged by the blades of the Brute's weapons, and all the marks and scratches made the weapon my own personal trophy. I also grabbed a shotgun, just in case I got cornered.

"We're about to touch down, sir! ETA one minute." Luck reminded me. As I double-checked my guns to make sure they were loaded correctly, the pelican jolted. "Aw, hell. Banshees! On our tail, sir! This is going to be a quick drop off, Roland!"

"You heard the lady, get ready, men!" I ordered. "Nguyen, get that turret set up in the back for cover. Turn around and line up, you know the drill." I turned to Private Reynolds. "You just follow suit, Private." The hatch in the back of the pelican opened up, revealing a fast moving surface not too far below. By now, the rest of the squad had lined up with their backs to the opening. I checked the map on my wrist computer. "Approaching the LZ, gentlemen. Get ready to drop in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Go! Go! Go!" Corporal Sharpe was first, he jumped backwards out of the back of the pelican. The others followed as Nguyen fired on the two banshees. The men dropped out until it was just Nguyen, Reynolds, and I. "Your turn, Private." I told a nervous Reynolds.

"Sir, I don't think-" He began.

"Exactly!" I interrupted. "Don't think, just jump. Roll when you hit the ground and you'll be fine."

"I'm not so sure, sir."

"Don't worry, private, I'm right behind you. Jump. Now." He reluctantly moved towards the back of the pelican. Closed his eyes tightly, and jumped. I quickly followed suit, with Nguyen close behind. i was only in free-fall for a second or so, but it always felt like an eternity. It was an amazing feeling, but it was soon replaced by the pain of impact. As my feet hit the ground, I curled and rolled multiple times until I stopped.

When my head stopped spinning, I looked up to see Nguyen about 100 feet in front of me, just finishing his rolls. As I raised myself up off of the ground, I checked my wrist computer. We were a little off from our landing zone, but it would have to do. I glanced behind me, and down the hill I saw six more figures spread along in a broken line. They were all heading this way. Good, I thought, everyone's OK.

"You and your boys make it alright, Roland?" Luck buzzed over the comm.

"Shaken, but safe, Luck" I replied. "Those banshees still giving you trouble?"

"Ha, a couple banshees aren't gonna bother me for too long, Roland. You should know that by now." She insisted.

"Fair enough. Be careful out there."

"Likewise."

By now, the rest of my squad had assembled around me. There was Private Reynolds, Private Lammons, Private Kendrickson, Private First Class Wallace, Lance Corporal Stone, Corporal Sharpe, Corporal Nguyen, an me, their Sergeant. "We're not far from our target LZ." I looked around, we were atop a grassy hill. Just over the next hill is where the supply point should be, and from there we move to protect one of the generators for the orbital MAC cannons. We already had weapons, but this supply point has warthogs and heavy weapons, which I knew were going to be invaluable for the battle to come. We marched, Private Reynolds experiencing difficulty from a hard landing. I blamed myself, of Course, for pulling a stunt like that without training him first, even though it was our only choice at the time. We didn't see any Covenant, not that I was complaining. It was a bit unsettling to be in a war zone with no enemies. As we reached the top of the second hill, we saw why.

From our vantage point we could a Covenant cruiser dropping hundreds of dropships towards the MAC generator station. Instantly, we all knew that we could do nothing.  
"My god." I couldn't help but exclaim. "Either way, we need those warthogs, men, so let's get a move on!" As we made our way down the hill towards the armory, I felt it would be a good ideas to contact command and see what we should do. They hadn't responded by the time we made our way down there.

There was a bit of a surprise waiting for us when we arrived at the armory. The barbed wire fence had been cut through. Somebody beat us here, I smelled insurrectionists, even though they would be crazy to try to find both the Covenant and humanity. "Stay sharp, men." I warned "Someone's here." Almost as an answer to my statement, a man stepped out from behind one of the buildings.

"Don't shoot!" He pleaded. "I just want to fight the Covenant, all of us do. They're destroying our - "

"Did you just say 'all of us?' How many are with you?" I asked.

"Just come and see, sir." he reasoned. I motioned to Sharpe, it could still be a trap. He followed the man around the corner. Thirty seconds or so passed before he sounded over the comm.

"Sir, we've got ten civilians. Unarmed, they couldn't break into the weapons cache." he informed me. I winced. Babysitting ten civilians definitely complicated things. I don't like complicated.

"They said they wanna fight. Who are we to stop them?" I began "Reynolds, Nguyen, and Stone, you're with me. We'll be finding some transport. Everyone else, help get those civis armed and grab some heavy weapons while you're at it. Everyone got that?"

"Sir, yes sir!" They responded in unison.

"Then move out." Reynolds, Nguyen, Stone, and I made our way towards the vehicle bay, and to our delight, there was not just one, but five warthogs. I moved to grab one of the machine-gun hogs, and ordered the others to each grab a troop hog. We drove over to the armory, where the civilians were being outfitted with armor and being given brief training on the use of firearms. I took the opportunity to grab a Designated Marksman Rifle, which would be better at range than my shotgun.

I sat down to the side and took the time to dabble on my wrist computer, checking the statuses of the nearby troops. I noticed an abnormally large concentration of men around the MAC generator not far from my location. Thinking for a moment, I realized what was happening. There were troops blockaded inside the building! I snapped up; knowing that it was my duty, no matter how suicidal it may seem, to save these men. I stood up and walked to my men. Almost all the civis were in uniform now. "Move it along men," I began "there are over fifty men trapped inside that generator building. Covenant are bombarding the place in hopes of taking down one of our Orbital MAC guns. I say we make them fight for it. Sharpe, Stone, you're with me in the gunner hog. Nguyen, you and the rest of the squad take a troop hog. You two," I pointed towards two of the intelligent looking civilians. "what are your names?"

"I'm Frank, sir." The first replied, "Frank Young."

"Alright, and you?" I asked as I turned to the other civilian.

"I'm Chris Hardy, sir."

"Can you both drive?" They nodded. "Good, I want each of you to take a warthog. The rest of you," I motioned to the remaining civilians, " will load into their hogs. You will all follow me." Just then, my comm. buzzed.

"Sergeant Roland, this is Lieutenant James Duncan of the 105th." I cringed a bit at the mention of the 105th. Those were the Helljumpers, the ODSTs. They were crazy men, rocketing down to the surface in a pod and crashing down in bone-shattering impacts was the norm for them. That just didn't seem right to me. "I'm on the Destroyer, _Sound of Thunder_. My men and i are prepping for insertion. Continue towards the generator, we'll be down there soon to help you boys out."

"You heard the man!" I exclaimed, "Move it! Double time!" The men scrambled into their seats as I climbed into the driver seat of my warthog. Stone was already in the gunner spot, and Sharpe was waiting in the passenger seat. Once everyone was loaded up, we set off to the woods for cover. They would allow us to get nearly all the way to the generator building before the Covenant notice us. As I drove along, I hoped to myself that these civilians knew what they were getting into. They were certainly in for the fight of their lives.

**Chapter 4**

Lieutenant Duncan had been in a number of hairy situations. Being an ODST, it was a given that he would experience his share of trouble. This, however, definitely took the cake for unexpected setback. He and his men had been preparing to drop into Reach, when the destroyer they were currently on was critically hit by a Covenant ship. Nearly the entire ship was vented of its atmosphere as a result of the wounds, leaving the Lieutenant and his men in a vacuum. Luckily, most of them had their suits sealed, but such a blow would undoubtedly lead the commander to enact the Cole Protocol, and initiate the ship's self-destruct sequence. That meant that it was time for them to get on the ground. Now.

"Alright, men, we've got ground troops waiting for backup, a Covenant Invasion fleet ready to take them out, and a ship about to blow. Anybody gonna chicken out on me now?"

"No, sir!" his squad yelled, most of them smiling through their de-polarized visors. This was the kind of impossible situation the ODST's lived for.

"We're standing miles above hell, and we've got front row tickets. So how are we getting down there, ODST's?"

"We go feet first, sir!"

"Then get ready to drop, troopers. We deploy in 60 seconds." Getting a squad of fifteen organized and into their pods in only a minute may seem like an impossible task, but for ODST's, nothing was impossible. The squad was ready to go with fifteen seconds to spare, just enough time for Duncan to enter the launch codes and get in his own pod. Another fifteen seconds and he was hurtling towards the surface of Reach like a bullet, and he couldn't feel more at home.

-

The woods had some surprises of its own. The trees became dense, and the terrain became rough. Numerous river gorges and drop-offs forced us to take different routes. Once we got even further into the woods, however, things got strange. Small craters dotted the landscape, including broken trees from whatever made them. "Stay sharp." I warned my men, not sure what to make of these craters. That was, of course, until I saw it. It looked like the giant from the Resolute, but not quite the same. I stomped on the brakes, and everyone turned their eyes to the Spartan. I jumped out of the hog and approached it, keeping my gun shouldered, just in case.

Once I got within a couple of feet from it, I realized how huge it was, at least a foot and a half taller than me. I tapped it with my foot, and got no response, so I motioned to Sharpe and Stone to come and help. Together, the three of us rolled the massive metal form onto its back. As the front of the helmet rolled into view, I saw that the visor was nearly gone, and the face was visible, scratched from shards of thick, nearly indestructible polycarbonate. I removed his helmet, now sure that the Spartan was human, as the program went public just 3 years ago, but that it was male. I put my fingers against his unnaturally muscled neck, and felt for a pulse, which was there, but barely. "Stone, he needs a wake-up. He's a big man, give him a big dose." Stone nodded, and silently pulled a medkit out of his pocket. He fumbled with it for a few seconds before he pulled out a massive adrenaline needle. He moved it around, confused as to where he should inject the Spartan, as his armor covered most of his body. He shrugged, and plunged it into the man's neck. We all jumped back, not wanting to be in the way if he should wake up and swing his arms or legs. His eyes opened and he sat up with a start. His eyes darted from me, to my squad, to the civilians.

"Who are you?" He asked "Where's the rest of my team?"

"I'm Sergeant Jonathan Roland, Spartan." I replied "I don't know where your team is, but we could really use your help. We have a MAC generator station about 7 kilometers west of here with 50 men trapped inside and an entire Covenant armada trying to tear it down." At the words 'MAC generator station,' the spartan looked up. I wouldn't find out until later that this was because his mission was to protect them in the first place, despite being with his team or not. "Why can't you contact your team?"

"My suit malfunctioned from the impact, my comm link is fried, and my bio-monitors have gone haywire. My team thought I was KIA, and must have moved on without me."

"Impact?" I asked, motioning around to the crater he was in.

"My team and I were coming in from orbit, when our pelican got shot down. We had to bail out."

I whistled in surprise at this discovery. "I thought the ODST's were insane," I joked "At least they use HEV's." The spartan chuckled a bit at that, which surprised me. Could_ the Spartans actually be normal people? _My question was answered when he stood up and snapped his shoulder, which had apparently been dislocated, back into place, just as casually as if he had been wiping some dirt off his back. I shuddered, remembering the pain when I dislocated my own shoulder back on Arcadia. "What's your name, Spartan?" I asked, hoping an actual name would help me to see him as a soldier, instead of whatever he really was.

"Keiichi - 047" he replied. _047? _Numbers really didn't help me identify with him, it just made him seem more alien. "What's the plan, Sergeant?"

"We've got four hogs, each loaded up full. Once we cut through these woods, we will be within 750 meters or so of the MAC generator. The Covenant won't see us coming until we're nearly there. Only one problem, we don't have any seats for you... Keiichi."

"Don't worry about me, I'll run alongside. Just let me troubleshoot some of my malfunctioning armor pieces real quick, sir."

I winced at the thought of having to slow to running speed for the spartan, but if any of the stories I'd heard were true, it would be well worth it once we got to the battle. "Granted, can you be ready in 5 minutes, Spartan?"

"I can be ready in two, sir." he confirmed.

"You got any weapons hidden in that crater? We don't have any to spare, save for the heavy weapons, and those won't do any good except against vehicles."

"I'll make do when we get there." He replied. I exhaled in relief knowing that I didn't have to give him one of my guns, I was going to need them a lot more than he was.

"OK, men, once Keiichi here is ready, I'll take point ahead. Young, Hardy," I looked towards the two civilians, "You two stay behind me. Nguyen, bring up the rear. Spartan, you keep up where ever you can, we'll match your speed."

"Yes, sir!" All replied. I was a little surprised to hear the civilians follow suit as enthusiastically as my squad. Maybe they wouldn't be such a pain after all. Once we got moving, Keiichi quickly ran ahead, matching the top speed of the warthog. I was amazed at how quickly he ran. I wouldn't have thought it was possible, and, even after a few kilometers, he didn't slow. He even lifted our hogs out of a mud pit when they got stuck. I was amazed, and seeing how strong and fast he was, I couldn't imagine how Jericho VII had fallen all those years ago, with multiple spartans on the ground. Then I realized that his entire team was somewhere on Reach, and a smile crossed my weary face. Maybe there was hope for Reach after all.

By now, I could see the edge of the woods, where we would soon emerge. "Stay sharp, marines." I warned "We'll soon be in sight of the Covenant." Lance Corporal Stone put his finger on the trigger, ready for whatever was in the clearing. We shot out into the open, and prepared for battle.

-

Duncan and his squad were rocketing to the surface of Reach at terminal velocity. His body shook around with the force of atmospheric resistance, jerking his pod around like a child's toy. It was getting hot inside his HEV, the flames surrounding it cooking him like a thanksgiving turkey, but Duncan ignored the heat. What he was focused on was the Covenant carrier slowly moving underneath him, blocking his way to the ground. The drop had gone smoothly so far, but that ship posed a major threat, he would have to change their direction mid-flight, a dangerous maneuver that would most likely send at least two of his squad tumbling uncontrollably. As the carrier continued to move underneath, he knew his time to give the order was quickly dissipating. He hesitated for a split second, then opened a comm. to his squad.

"Change trajectory men!" he barked, "Covenant cruiser is moving to block our path. Turn due east with a two degree angle of attack, that should get us just over the side of the ship, and set us down nearly on top of the generator station... On my mark, change trajectory." He waited as his squad confirmed their readiness by blinking lights to his visor. "Now!" He jammed a big red button with his fist, igniting a small thruster on the bottom side of the HEV, turning it slightly. He knew if the air got under the pod at the wrong time, it would catch the side of it and send it spinning out of control. He closed his eyes and hoped he would get lucky. A few seconds later, the thrusters stopped, and he was fine. Duncan exhaled, but his relief soon disappeared when he heard screams over the comm. He checked his HUD and saw that Corporal Grant's pod had begun to tumble out of control, and hadn't even changed directory. Duncan and his men did all they could, they turned off their comm.'s and watched in silence as Grant's HEV slammed into the Covenant Cruiser. Thinking that it was safe in-atmosphere, the cruiser had its shields down, and his pod crashed through the center of the ship, directly through the control room. Duncan watched in amazement as the ship lost control, wobbling around before finally beginning to dip towards the planet. It sank down as Duncan's pod passed it on its way down. He released his drag flaps, and braced for impact.

-

We drove onwards, waiting for the Covenant to spot us, Keiichi somehow keeping pace with us over the rough terrain. About half way there, a pair of Banshees spotted the dust trail billowing out behind us and started heading right for us. "Stone!" I called the Lance Corporal to attention, "Get ready to target those Banshees!"

"I've got this, sir!" Keiichi yelled to me over the roar of the warthog engines and the sounds of the distant battle, after all, his comm was still broken.

"If you don't mind me asking, Spartan, how do you intend on doing that?" I yelled over to the massive soldier, who had come close to the hog to make communicating easier.

"Permission to show you, sir?" He said with a smile. He had taken his helmet off, as the external speakers were fried as well, and with it on, he would have been mute. He gave me a confident glance, and for some reason, I believed him.

"Granted." Stone and Sharpe looked at me in disbelief. Surely this one man couldn't take out two banshees? I hoped he was right. "Now take them out, Spartan!" Before he could do anything, however, the eerie purple craft opened fire, two green plasma mortars heading straight at us. "Evasive maneuvers!" I yelled in panic, hoping the civilians would be able to get out of the way. "Hurry up, Spartan!"

Keiichi turned towards the warthog and jumped onto the bumper, grabbing the top of it with one hand and making the entire warthog shift, nearly into a wheelie. He grabbed an experimental weapon out of the back of the warthog, shouldered the massive green hulk, and squeezed the trigger. A blinking red laser shone towards the nearest banshee. While it did this, the banshee's shot hit, exploding between the hogs, shaking the ground underneath us, jarring the warthogs violently. Somehow, despite the turbulent ride, Keiichi kept his aim dead on the banshee. Even so, nothing happened, save for the pulsing laser. I was about to tell him to try something else, when it went off. A thick, red laser shot out and pierced the banshee, turning it to nothing more than a ball of blue flame and debris.

Jaw agape, I turned my head to see Keiichi put the weapon back into the hog, jump off the back, slow down until he was about 50 feet behind me, and then sprint towards us. He caught up quickly, moving almost twice the speed as the warthog. He jumped, getting a foot on the bumper, then took a step onto the roof of the hog, jumping off towards the approaching banshee. Amazingly, he grabbed the wings as it soared overhead. Looking in the mirror above the windshield, I watched as he climbed on top of the banshee, the pilot trying to shake him off. Keiichi reached back, punched his hand into the vehicle, and pulled out the elite driver. He jumped off after the alien, and they struggled against each other as they fell to the ground. Upon impact, a cloud of dust rose up. I checked his bio-signs on my wrist computer, but they were flat-lined. _If there were ever a way to go_, I thought. Despite the loss, we turned our head forward, and continued towards the generators.

It was then that the Covenant troops spotted us. They opened fire at us, plasma scorching the warthogs, melting the windshield, and throwing up clouds of dust and glass all around us. The dust obscured our vision, and we drove into a brown and gray abyss. Out of nowhere, a pair of hunters ran towards us from the dust, unable to swerve out of the way in time, I steered straight at one of them, hoping to run it down. However, it raised its massive arm, and slammed it down onto the hood of the hog, crushing it into the ground, and sending Sharpe and I flying out of the open top, and Stone, who was strapped into the gun turret. I checked my wrist computer's bio-monitor. Stone was unconscious but not out. The hunter turned from the hog and headed right at me. It walked within 10 feet of me, raised its massive plasma gun, and charged it to fire. I couldn't move as the tip glowed bright green. Then there was the sound of an explosion.

**Chapter 5**

The force of the blast sent me flying back into the wall of the generator building, dirt and fluorescent orange blood coating my entire body. I blinked away the blackness that had clouded my vision, and as the dust cleared, I saw a familiar, tear-drop shaped hunk of metal where the hunter had just been, a big slab of the hunter's nearly impenetrable armor protruding from underneath it. I smiled, the 105th had arrived. My smile quickly faded to a look of disbelief as a Covenant Carrier that had been floating above the generator station nosed into the ground about a kilometer away. The tip of the ship crumpled under the weight of the craft. The flaming center of the craft visible at that angle, I saw it explode, engulfing the middle of the carrier in flames. The ship was sheared in two from the blast, and I felt the ground shake as the two pieces touched down, sending up a huge cloud of dust and smoke into the air.

A hissing sound from the drop pod grabbed my attention. I looked to see a small puff of white steam shoot out from the front. I realized what it was and dropped onto my stomach, the front hatch barely missing my head as it shot from the pod, cracking the concrete wall behind me. I looked up to see the ODST emerge from the still smoldering pod.

"You in charge here?" He asked me via the comm. link.

"Yeah. I'm Sergeant Roland." I answered, "You do that?" I asked, motioning to the smoking cruiser.

He turned to see it, then faced me again. "Just a normal day for the ODSTs." I felt that he was grinning under the polarized visor. "I'm Lieutenant Duncan. You're under my command now. Status?"

I checked my wrist computer, pulling up the info on my team. Stone was still unconscious, Nguyen was seriously injured, and I didn't know if any of the civilians were alright. "I've got one man unconscious, another injured, six others in fighting shape, ten armed civilians; unknown status, and one spartan KIA. There are approximately fifty men locked inside this building and there is a carrier full of -" I remembered the ship that had just crashed, realizing that this was the main force assaulting the generator, "-scratch that, numerous drop ships full of Covenant trying to destroy it. I've got three remaining troop 'hogs, and one normal possibly functional, but flipped."

"Sounds to me like you've got quite a mess here, Sergeant. I've got twelve ODSTs, including myself. Why don't we try and gather your force?"

We wandered through the dust, relying on the Lt.'s HUD for direction. Luckily, the Covenant had gone searching for survivors on the crashed carrier, so we had ample time to gather the rest of the men. The second hunter had done its job, destroying one of the civilians' troop hog, killing hardy and four others. My squad had managed to kill it before it took anyone else out by using the rocket launcher, but the damage was done. The remaining five civilians were low in morale. Those were their neighbors and friends who had been killed. Nguyen had been pierced by one of the hunter's spines, and was losing blood, fast. Sharpe had grabbed Stone from the warthog, and was unharmed, but shaken from being thrown from the passenger seat. Duncan's squad was mostly OK. Of the thirteen that launched, one lost control in the drop, and two more didn't survive the landing.

That left us with a force of 21, not nearly enough to hold off the Covenant forces for long. We needed to get inside to the others if we hoped to survive. We found the front entrance, luckily reinforced to defend against insurrectionists, but now, they were the least of our worries. Unfortunately, the comm link that would have allowed us to contact the men inside was melted by plasma rounds, and our own comms couldn't penetrate the abnormally thick concrete walls. We were going to have to blast our way in. Not likely, as our rockets had been used on the hunter, our spartan laser had been crushed under Lt. Duncan's pod with the hunter, and we had used all of our grenades against the Covenant. To make matters worse, the Covenant's attempts to enter the building had melted the thick, metal doors together, so the men inside wouldn't be able to open the doors even if they wanted to.

My men and I did all we could. We built makeshift barriers around the doors, and prepared for the assault we all knew was coming. The Covenant had finished their search for survivors of the crash, and they were on their way back with a vengeance. First to strike were the ghosts, their elite drivers giving up when they realized that our barriers melted, than solidified into even stronger structures thanks to their plasma. They retreated back into the main force, which, by then, was not far off. The Covenant Spirit Dropships dropped the remaining hundred or so soldiers nearly on our heads. Fortunately, when the aliens realized that they wouldn't be able to get in the generator station, most of them went back to the approaching carrier, which was going to use its weapons to simply destroy it. When the unlucky ODST careened into the ship, most of the troops were killed in the crash, and only those who were left behind to keep watch on the station survived. Even so, there were far too many for only 21 soldiers to take care of, even with ten ODSTs.

Nevertheless, we held our ground, feeling the tremors as one hundred aliens touched down simultaneously. I looked around at the others. I saw the enigmatic ODSTs behind their visors, the frightened civilians clutching their rifles in fear, my men showing no emotion, they knew that this was no time for emotion, only for determination and focus, then I saw the covenant troops. I recognized at least 5 elites, that meant trouble; 20 or so jackals, their shields would be difficult to get around; 2 brutes, I had only seen them once before, and the carnage I had seen created by their hands haunted me for years, they would be incredibly tough to take out; the rest were grunts, about 70 of them, not much trouble if isolated, but with this many, they could be deadly. I checked my trusty assault rifle, put my finger to the trigger, and turned out of cover.

-

Keiichi woke up, his mind still swimming from the fall. While it wasn't nearly as far as his leap of faith out of the pelican, it was enough to knock him unconscious, the blow from the elite didn't help either. He looked over to the corpse next to him, its armor plating dented and punctured from the blows of his massive fists during the fall, its four mandible still open wide from its final screams as the spartan had ended its life. Keiichi grabbed the dead warrior's plasma weaponry, jogged to the downed banshee, which was luckily still operational, climbed inside, and out of some strange combination of intuition and instinct, worked the controls, making his way towards the generator station.

-

I looked into the eyes of the massive figure, my feet held aloft by its massive, bony hands. I stared at its razor-sharp teeth as its mandibles contorted into what I imagined to be a grin. It raised it other arm, clutching a metal cylinder. A long, blue blade slowly appeared, shimmering as he pulled his arm back, pointing the tip of the blade directly at my chest. Time seemed to slow as my life seemingly neared its end. My eyes darted around. I saw my assault rifle lying below me on the ground, a few new scars adorning its surface. I saw Private Reynolds, crawling away from another elite raising its own plasma sword, about to take Reynolds's life. I saw a brute slam its massive, bladed weapon into one of the ODSTs, shattering his visor and sending him flying backwards.

The battle raged around me, and seeing the other men around me triggered a change. I felt renewed strength surge through me, memories of the pelican ride here and the beauty of this planet reminded me that I still had something worth fighting for. I snapped out of my trance, brought my foot into the roof of the elite's mouth, pulled out my knife while it was distracted, and plunged the blade into its hand. It howled in pain and anger as I fell to the ground. Once my feet touched down, I grabbed my AR, rolled forward between its legs, got back to my feet, and climbed on the beast's back, firing rounds into the back of its neck.

Despite my greatest efforts, however, the elite was too quick. It reached an arm over its head and grabbed me by the neck, throwing me over and back against the wall. As I looked up, I saw the massive alien approaching me, sword drawn and a look of fury on its face. A banshee flew overhead. _Perfect._, I thought to myself, _just what we need, more enemy air support. _I lowered my head, accepting that I couldn't do anything more. I heard the elite grow near, the humming of its weapon drowning out the noise of the surrounding battle as my mind blocked out everything else.

Then, out of nowhere, the sound stopped. I looked up, surprised, to see a green cloud engulfing the elite, dirt flying up around it as the banshee flew overhead. As the cloud cleared, the elite was gone, nothing but a crater remained. I was confused. That was a banshee mortar. Why had the pilot fired on its ally? Then a flood of realization hit me. I checked my wrist computer, and brought up the bio-meter on Keiichi. My mind revisited our brief conversation in the woods._"My suit malfunctioned from the impact, my comm link is fried, and my bio-monitors have gone haywire. My team thought I was KIA, and must have moved on without me."_The spartan's words rung in my ears, and I smiled. He didn't die after all, but his bio-monitor was fried, my computer saw him as KIA.

Knowing that the spartan was still on our side gave me hope for success. I turned towards Reynolds, who was still crawling from the elite. I raised my AR and opened fire. The elite was distracted by the bullets hitting its shields. Reynolds realized that he had an opening, and pulled the shotgun off his back. He aimed up at the elite, and fired directly into its chest. The elite's shields popped, Reynolds fired again, and it fell, a gaping hole in its chest. I ran over and helped Reynolds to his feet.

"Good work, private." I congratulated, "We need to regroup. Head back to the door."

"But sir," He commented, confused by my request, "we're in the middle of a battle. If we turn our backs, we'll be taken out."

I chuckled a bit, and pointed into the sky. "You see that banshee?" I asked him, he nodded "That's the spartan, he survived."

"How is that possible, sir?"

"His bio-monitor was fried in the landing, so when I checked him after the banshee. it read KIA, when he was still alive. Now, I told you to regroup, the spartan will cover!"

"Sir, yes sir!" He ran off towards the door, shotgun still raised. I had a good feeling about that kid. He wasn't doing too badly for his first battle. Then my attention returned to the nearby battle. I activated my comm.

"Regroup at the door to the station! This is Sergeant Roland, the Spartan is in that banshee, he will cover us. We need to organize." I broadcasted.

"Roland, this is Duncan." I heard in my ear, "You told me the Spartan was KIA!"

"There was a suit malfunction, I'll explain later. Just head back to the doors, he'll cover our backs!"

"I'm in charge here, Sergeant! One man can't cover a retreat."

I winced as I remembered the bad blood between the spartans and the ODSTs. "Sir, I know you don't trust spartans, but we need to get organized. The Spartan has a banshee, he can take out quite a few covenant soldiers while we do so."

The silence said more than his words ever could. He knew I was right. "...Alright, my ODSTs and I will make our way back to the doors. Try and find the civilians, if they're still alive."

"Will do, sir!" The comm went dead, and I raised my rifle again. I flipped my eyepiece down, so I could see waypoints over my misfit match of soldiers. I went towards the civilians, fighting my way through hordes of grunts. I found the three remaining civis in a tight circle, mowing down the grunts around them. They saw me and nodded in recognition. I joined their circle, and aided in keeping the grunts at bay.

"We're heading back to the doors to regroup and organize!" I yelled over the sounds of gunfire. I turned to one of the civilians who I had recognized as Frank Young. "Come with me." Young gave me a nod and the four of us made our way to meet the others, the tremors of plasma mortar fire behind us as Keiichi mopped up the rest of the alien troops.

We were down to a force of 13, 3 marines, 3 civilians, 6 ODSTs, and Keiichi-047. Now that the covenant were stopped, for now, we stood together by the doors, trying to think of a way inside. Keiichi was the first to think of an idea.

"What about the plasma mortar of the banshee? Maybe it has enough force to break in." he offered.

"No," Duncan returned, "Once the covenant declared war on us, all secure buildings were retro-fitted to be able to withstand plasma explosions."

"What about this?" The Spartan held up a silver cylinder. "I got this from the elite that piloted that banshee. Would it be able to slice through it?"

"It's worth a try." I suggested. "You know how to work that thing?" I asked.

The Spartan laughed. "I guess we'll find out." He turned it on, the blade appearing. He shrugged as if the say _Here goes nothing_, and plunged the sword into the metal doors.

**Chapter 6**

The Spartan plunged the blade into the door, but, instead of penetrating the metal, the plasma spread out as it touched the surface. Keiichi looked back at us, confused.

"Told you," Duncan smirked, despite the situation, "It's reinforced against plasma. Guess it works for swords too." The Spartan turned back towards the door, thought for a second, then picked his foot up and put it against the door.

"It's magnetic..." He mumbled.

"How can you tell?" I replied "isn't that suit not supposed to be magnetic?"

"For the most part, yes, but the boots are magnetic so we can walk on metal in zero gravity." He explained.

"Why does it matter?" Duncan asked. "Won't help us get in, will it?"

"It just might." The Spartan asserted as he began to fiddle with the sword hilt. "Do you know how the Covenant weapons work?"

"They shoot plasma. It hurts. It's hot. What else is there to know? I just need to be able to stay away from the damn things, not repair them." Duncan shot back.

"They trick isn't what they shoot, Lieutenant, it's how they shoot."

"I don't follow, Tin Man, what are you talkin about?"

"The Covenant direct their plasma with magnetic fields, it encloses the plasma and carries it to the target, that's why they can follow you if you move out of the way, the field simply adjusts to the new position. Without the field, however, the plasma would simply disperse, and would only be effective at extremely close range."

"Alright, but what's this got to do with our door?" Duncan argued.

"You said they were reinforced, hell-jumper, you didn't say how. Nothing can really reinforce a wall against plasma, it would eventually melt its way through. What they did here is ingenious, but very costly. They laced the metal walls with a strong ferromagnetic compound, which keeps the plasma from reaching the wall at all."

"I don't see how some magnetic Ferris wheel or whatever it is can stop plasma."

"A ferromagnetic compound. It's basically a really really powerful magnet, and in this case, with an incredibly powerful, yet very small, magnetic field. This field is similar to the ones the aliens use to direct their plasma, so when the plasma hits it, it cant pass through, the plasma has to stop. This particular compound is much stronger than the plasma direction fields, so when the plasma is squeezed between the magnetic fields, it breaks through the weaker field, dispersing without ever touching the wall... It musta given the Covenant quite a problem when they tried to get in." The Spartan was still tinkering with the sword. "I bet I know whose idea this was... Fhajad would be laughing his ass off if he knew he caused them this much trouble." I heard him mumble.

"So how are we supposed to get in?" Duncan demanded.

"I'm interfacing the sword with my armor. If this works, I'll be able to use the power from my suit to greatly increase the power of the electromagnetic field of the sword, which will hopefully give it enough juice to punch on through the magnetic field of the door, and create our doorway inside." I was amazed, when ONI picked the best soldiers to be Spartans, they hadn't stopped at physical strength and aim, they chose the smartest too. Keiichi had lost me when he started talking about the magnetic fields, physics had never been my strongest subject.

"Done!" The Spartan proclaimed. He held up the hilt, now connected via wires to his wrist, and activated the glowing blade. As he did so, his shields flickered and then dissipated, the sword using up all the power that they had previously used. He plunged the sword into the metal, and this time, it stopped for a split second, and then punctured the door, turning the metal white hot around it. Keiichi slowly traced a door shape out of the thick metal plating, just above his height. More than enough room for any of us to pass through. He then deactivated the blade, and unplugged it from his wrist, careful not to damage any of the internal parts to the sword, and stowed it away on the magnetic patch on his thigh. He looked towards us, we nodded, and he kicked in the massive piece of metal, and it slid a good 15 feet into the room before tipping over and falling with a heavy clunk that shook the ground beneath us.

Keiichi was the first to enter the pitch-black room, but as he did so, a shot rang out, the heavy thud of a shotgun. At the sound of gunfire, we all raised our own weapons, even the surviving civilians. The Spartan fell back, and a figure stepped out of the shadows. He quickly stepped up to the Spartan and pointed his gun at his face. Then, suddenly, his face showed surprise, and he put the gun down.

"Oh my god, I thought you were an elite. The armor and the... and the sword..." His voice trailed off as he realized what he had just done.

"Don't worry," Keiichi groaned as he raised himself back up "I've taken worse."His shields flickered back on, finally recovering from the power drain from the sword, albeit a little late. "The metal plating of my armor stopped most of it." As he turned towards us, I saw that he was right, there were numerous dents in his chest armor, but only one hole as a result of the point-blank shot.

"Stone, take a look at the Spartan's wound." I began.

"No need, Sergeant,"Keiichi affirmed as he moved his hand towards the wound. He pulled the chest-piece off, dug his fingers into the wound, and pulled the bullet out. His expression hadn't even changed. "See? All better. I could use some bio-foam though." He looked at Stone, and the Lance Corporal tossed him a canister that he had just pulled out of his bag. The Spartan filled the would and re-attached the chest-piece.

Now that that was settled, I turned my attention to Duncan, who had ignored the Spartan, and had instead gone straight for the man that shot him. The Lieutenant had removed his helmet, and I was shocked to see his age, he looked to be about forty, with black hair and a graying beard. Based on his strength and energy, I would have guessed him to no more than thirty. He was nodding and had a grin on his face as the man, an engineer, by the looks of his jumpsuit, finished his sentence. I made my way over to the duo.

"What's the situation?" I asked. "Where are all the marines?

"Oh, yeah... about that..."The engineer began, a look of discomfort on his face. 'Wesley' was stitched onto his uniform. "Those were decoys. I thought it would dissuade the Covenant from breaking in. Guess I was wrong."

"Decoys? How can decoys show up as friendlies on our radar?"

"New tech." He replied casually "Just shipped in a month or so ago. It's a variation of a radar jammer that feigns UNSC or Covenant personnel. Guess the guys upstairs thought it would help make places seem better fortified, or, if they used the Covenant signatures, make them seem like they were already overrun."

"Why would new prototypes be sent here? This is just a generator station."

"Ha... Not quite." Wesley started "There is a generator, but this specific station also serves as an R&D test lab. The generator itself is two hundred feet beneath us, and everywhere in-between is testing facility. Technically, you aren't supposed to know that, but given the situation, I thought I'd bend the rules a bit."

I nodded in understanding. "OK, who are you?"

"Wesley Greenburg. I'm just an engineer here, I change prototypes to make them more effective, then send them back to the ONI lab they came from. I'm no soldier, so I don't know how I can really help you out... Wait, how'd you guys get in? The walls are protected against plasma, that sword shouldn't have been able to get through."

"That Spartan is a bit of an engineer himself, did something with his suit to make the field stronger or something like that. I'm not much of a physics guy, so I don't understand most of it. I'm sure he can explain it much better."

"OK, if you two are done tellin stories, I think we have a bigger issue here." Duncan interrupted. "We now have an open entrance and I'm sure there are more Covenant on the way. We need a way to defend this place and fast."

"There's no need for that, Lieutenant," Wesley assured. "The MAC cannon that is powered by this generator is actually on the other side of the planet, ONI thought it would be a good tactic to mix them up. That way, if the Insurrectionists attacked, they wouldn't know which to destroy and which to leave alone, it would confuse the hell out of them, and now it seems to be working on the Covenant. This station's cannon was destroyed a few hours ago."

"Then how do we get out of here?" Duncan asked.

"I've got a pelican waiting for our signal." I answered. I had almost forgotten about Luck. I didn't even know if she was still alright.

Suddenly, the lieutenant put his hand to his ear.

"...Yes sir, I'll find something." He said into his earpiece. He looked up to Wesley "Do you have a way to establish video contact with Vice Admiral Whitcomb?"

Wesley looked taken aback by the question. "Yeah, just a few rooms over, I take it that was who you were talking to?" He answered.

"Yes, now get me to it. Now. Roland, you're coming too. You too Rust Bucket." He yelled to the Spartan. He then looked towards the civilians. "One of you civis follow me."

Once inside the room, Wesley walked  
Over to a table and pressed a button. The entire surface lit up, and a hologram of the planet reach appeared. He pressed another, and a screen on the nearby wall turned on as well.

"Lieutenant, Sergeant, I'm afraid I have some bad news." Whitcomb's voice sounded through the room, his face clearly showing the weariness he must have felt. "The Covenant are raking a different approach on Reach. They aren't just glassing, at least not yet. They are truly invading the planet. What I'm about to show you is classified, but I don't think any of that matters at this point." The table hologram began to zoom in to the surface of the planet. "This is footage taken by an ONI Prowler just a few hours ago." the hologram showed thousands of Covenant around what appeared to be a massive structure or series of structures. "This is a Covenant military camp, one of numerous others detected across the planet. This one is just 50 or so kilometers west of your current position. The plan at this point is to regroup and rally against it at daybreak. What remains of your squads will be vital to his operation, and thus you are to regroup at -"

"Sir, I have a better idea," Wesley interjected.

"Excuse me, and who are you?" Whitcomb replied, clearly upset about being interrupted.

"I'm just an engineer here, but a huge attack may not be the best course of action here."

"Well, what do you suggest we do? Wait for them to attack?"

"No, but why not send a small strike team in with a nuke, and blast the place away?"

"We are a little short of nukes right now, they are all deployed up out of atmosphere."

"Not all of them sir, we have one here. We were supposed to be configuring it to work remotely with wider range, but we couldn't. If we could get a small team to drop it off at the Covenant compound, it would eliminate it, and resources could be used elsewhere."

"What team would volunteer to do something like that, Engineer?"

"Sir, my ODST's and I are up for it sir!" Duncan exclaimed.

"My team is up for it too, sir. The Spartan can assist us as well." I added.

"Very well. You will deploy the bomb into the compound under cover of night. I trust you have transport?"

"Yes sir, I have a pelican dropship attached to my unit." I replied.

"Good. If it isn't destroyed by morning, I'll launch the attack."

"Understood, sir." Duncan finished.

"Alright. You boys pull this off, and you just might just tip things in our favor... Keep me posted. Whitcomb, out."

The screen went black, and I turned my attention to the hologram of the Covenant compound. As it faded out, contact with the Vice Admiral ending, I fully realized the magnitude of what I had gotten myself into.

"I hope you know what you're doin', Wesley." Duncan expressed as he turned towards the engineer.

"Don't worry about me. I'll give the bomb to the Spartan, he should be able to protect it until we get there. Besides, something tells me the Covenant aren't done here yet. They're going to come back, and when they do, I want to have a little surprise for them."

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"The generators downstairs are no longer powering anything. I can rig the nuclear reactors to meltdown once a switch is tripped. When the Covenant come in, the makeshift nuke will wipe them out."

"Sounds like a plan." I smiled. No wonder ONI recruited this guy, he was right up with the Spartan on intelligence. "How long do you need?"

"Rigging the system to blow will only take a few minutes, but attaching a laser trigger to it will take a bit longer. Probably about half an hour."

"Lieutenant!" One of the ODST's shouted, "Covenant ship spotted! Approaching our position!"

"We wont have that long, techie." Duncan stated, "You better put that bomb on rush order. We're gonna need some defenses, what do you have?"

"I've got a whole room full of prototype weapons, help yourself."

We followed Wesley to the elevator, and he put in an elaborate code to get it to open. "Don't worry, you won't need to know the code to get back up." He assured us. We went down two floors and he let us off. "Grab what you can, fill the elevator, there's probably only time for one trip. I'm goin' down to the bottom. I've got a comm, I'll be in contact. Let me know when your bird gets here."

"Can do." Duncan answered. We stepped from the elevator and into the massive lighted room. The room was stuffed with all kinds of explosives, weapons, and even a few vehicles. Duncan dropped to his knees and clasped his hands. "Thank you, God, for I have found heaven!"

I chuckled a bit, but our fun didn't last long. The ceiling shook above us. The Covenant had arrived, and we began scavenging for defenses."

-

Lance Corporal Stone, Private Reynolds, and the ODST's could barely hold the Covenant back, even with the Spartan's help, it was a difficult fight. The Spartan was holding the massive hulk of metal that had previously been cut out by the opening, and was using the magnetic field of it to stop the majority of the plasma fire, but the few that made it through usually hit their mark, or got dangerously close to it. The dispersing plasma heated up the room intensely, and the surface of the metal, despite being protected against direct contact, was beginning to glow faintly from the heat.

Through the opening, Stone saw numerous hunters. That was a bad sign, he knew they could easily knock the Spartan off his feet if they got close enough, and none of their weapons would be able to slow them down from the front. He wondered what was taking the Sergeant and the Lieutenant so long.

"Sir, I don't think we will be able to stay here long," One of the ODST's began, "We should probably mo-"

A hunter fired its cannon through the opening, it was slightly deflected by the Spartan's makeshift shield, and made its way into the room. The explosion sent Stone flying through the air, and slamming into the wall on the opposite side of the room. He looked towards the cloud of green smoke, the ODST who had just spoken to him was nowhere to be seen, and the wall he had been standing by had a gaping hole in it, fringed with white and orange molten metal.

The hunter had by now made his way to the Spartan and his makeshift shield. The hunter slammed into the metal barrier, sending the Spartan backwards, the huge piece of alloy falling onto him, more than enough to crush any of the other marines. The Hunter put one of its massive feet onto the Spartan's impromptu prison, and raised its massive arm cannon towards Stone.

"Get down!" A familiar voice yelled over the chaos. He complied just in time for a rocket to fly overhead, striking the hunter in a massive explosion. Pieces of heavy armor plating and worms filled the room as Stone looked up to see two figures enter the room with heavy weapons. Before he could do anything, his vision clouded, and he blacked out.

-

I reloaded my rocket launcher, and finished off the rest of the hunters near the opening. The lieutenant carried the large box of mines to the opening, and spread them generously across the floor. I fired another rocket, and watched a crowd of grunts disappear, the methane in their tanks aiding the explosion. Pieces of their armor ricocheted outward, and dispersed the shields of some of the nearby elites. I turned my attention from the fiery battlefield and made my way to Keiichi.

"You still alive under there?" I yelled under the massive hulk. A muffled response was all I got. I nodded, looking with apprehension at the wall that pinned him, t was much too heavy for any of us to lift, the Spartan would have to get himself out of there. Almost as a response, it started to shake, slowly moving to the side as the Spartan used all his strength to slide it off of him. I gave Duncan a nod, and he began ushering the others into another room, away from the fire of the Covenant, now that the entrance was guarded by explosives. As they left, he began to unpack an automated turret that we had snagged from the room below us. As he finished, it began firing at a curious grunt, ending its life before it got to the mines.

I looked down, and the Spartan was now visible, his head bleeding he moved the wall aside, finally uncovering himself enough to stand. He staggered into the other room, his arm over my shoulder, giving what little support I could give to a man that large and heavy. Duncan was right behind us, carrying the unconscious body of Lance Corporal Stone.

"Luck, you still up there?" I asked over the comm.

"Almost there, Roland... LZ...hot...better...ready to...out here...arrive.." She replied, the electromagnetic interference from the plasma fire distorting the signal. I tapped into the systems array, which was much more powerful.

"Say again, Luck"

"I said I'm almost there, but the LZ is hot, you better be ready to haul ass out here when I arrive. Damn, Roland, I can see the smoke from here, you sure cooked up a firestorm this time."

"Well, you know my style, Luck. We'll be ready, give us a signal when you're about to touch down."

"Will do." with that, our conversation ended, and I turned towards the rest of the soldiers. I opened my mouth to speak, when a signal came in over the comm.

"Duncan, Roland, this is Wesley. I'm finished up down here and heading back up. We've got five minutes 'till this thing blows, your ride better be here soon."

"Five minutes!" I yelled back, "That's cuttin' awful close!"

"That was the longest I could set it for, Sergeant, I'll explain once we're outta here."

_If we get out of here. _I thought. "Luck, you need to double time it over here, we have five minutes until this whole place blows."

"Come again, Roland? Did you say-"

"Yes! Five minutes! How long will it take you to get here."

"Well, normally it'd be about 7 minutes, but, since we're pals and all, I guess I could do it in three." Luck replied, her humor taking point, despite the circumstances. "I'd get ready if I were you, Roland. It's gonna be a quick touchdown."

An explosion shook the building, an unfortunate Covenant soldier had wandered a little too close to the mines, a mistake he wouldn't be able to make again. "I'm on it." I answered hastily. I turned to the rest of the men. "OK, we've got five minutes to get outta here, and a transport here in three. When she touches down, we're gonna need to get through the doorway and into the dropship as quick as we can." I looked around. Frank Young was still alive, the last civilian left. Reynolds was still there, and was helping Stone wake up. Duncan and the two other remaining ODST's were still enigmatic behind their visors, and a fourth, whose visor was shattered, stood expressionless by his comrades. The Spartan, Keiichi, stood tall, his head no longer bleeding, even more mysterious than the ODST's, and twice as deadly. "Spartan, will you cover our exit?" I asked.

"I'd be glad to, sir, but I'll need a helmet. That Pelican's gonna kick up a lot of dirt, and a helmet will allow me to see what I can't, and shoot them through the dust."

A moment of silence filled the room. "Take mine." All turned to see the owner of the voice was Duncan. I was in disbelief, _an ODST reaching out to a Spartan? _"It should interface with your armor, similar to how it does with ours. Take it, you'll need it more than I will." Keiichi accepted the helmet, and put it on. I didn't doubt that he felt more comfortable with a helmet on.

There was no more time or sentiment, as a voice sounded in my ear. "Roland, I'm touchin' down, get your asses out here before they take out my bird!"

"Our ride is here, men! Let's get outta here!"

"I'll hold up and grab Wesley." Duncan asserted. "Get in that pelican." I followed the Spartan to the doorway. He pulled out a pistol, and fired a single shot to disable to automated turret. In a single, fluid motion, he pulled a grenade and tossed it into the sea of mines. The ground shook from the explosion, but the Spartan didn't slow down, he ran through the flames as the pelican lowered into our view. He shoulder a DMR and began firing through the dust. The rest of us ran towards the dropship. Two stray shots took down an ODST each, but the rest of us made it through. I manned the machine gun turret in the back, and Reynolds, Stone, Frank Young, and the ODST took seats. The Spartan hopped up, and took a seat with his legs dangling out of the back.

"Hold up, we've got two more coming!" I yelled to Luck.

"Well, they better hurry up, I need to get outta here!" She lifted the pelican a bit and began spinning around, firing the chin-mounted machine gun at the Covenant. I reciprocated and fired the turret, the Spartan taking shots as well.

"Sir, we have one minute until detonation." The Spartan advised me.

"Duncan, can you hear me!" I yelled into the comm. No reply. Then I remembered that Duncan didn't have his helmet, he had no comm. "Wesley! Where are you?"

"On the way, just out of the elevator." I looked at the doorway and waited.

"Roland, we need to get outta here!" Luck yelled frantically as the pelican took more damage.

"I see them sir!" Keiichi shouted. I looked and he was right. They were there, running full-speed out of the doorway.

"GO!GO!GO!" I ordered Luck. She hit the thrusters and began lifting off as Wesley and Duncan jumped. The Spartan grabbed their arms and pulled them both in. We were safe, for now. I sat down and rested my head on the back of the seat, letting myself relax, however long it would last, it was almost peaceful. I closed my eyes, and waited for the troubling night ahead.

_**Chapter Seven**_

I opened my eyes as the shockwave rushed by. I watched the fire engulf the Covenant forces that had taken so many lives today, the ground around the station shoot upwards in a massive cloud of dust, then implode as the rooms underground filled in with those that had previously been above them. But none of us cheered. We were all too tired, too mournful of those lost, to applaud even more destruction.

I continued to stare out of the open back of the Pelican. The plasma fire had melted one of the hydraulic arms that controlled the hatch, and Luck was unable to close it. The eight of us in the back of the pelican remained silent until Luck spoke up.

"So... You gonna introduce me to your new friends, Roland?"

It was Duncan who replied first. "I'm Lieutenant James Duncan, Ma'am, and this is Corporal Benjamin Bishop. And you are?"

"Tracey Lukenowski, Luck for short. What about you two? And is that a Spartan?" She spoke to the rest of the men.

"Frank Young, civilian." He spoke without lifting his eyes from the metal grating of the pelican's floor.

"Wesley, engineer"

"I am Keiichi-047, Ma'am."

"Oooh, and polite too! Roland, you need to bring friends along more often." Luck joked.

"Hey, Spartan, hand me the bomb," Wesley requested "I still need to configure it to detonate remotely, instead of with a timer."

"Careful" The Spartan warned, "one slip that thing could fly out of the back." He reluctantly handed the weapon to the engineer. Wesley began working on the surprisingly small device with a pocket screwdriver and some parts he had grabbed from the station.

"Hey," Bishop said. We all turned to him. That was the first word he'd spoken today. "I thought you said you were setting the reactors to a laser trigger. Why'd you use a timer?"

Wesley seemed a little surprised at the question, but continued to work on the bomb as he answered. "I told you how long that would take, and we didn't have that much, time, so I did the quicker thing, and just rigged them to blow right then. The meltdown process takes about five minutes, so that's how much time we had to get outta there.

"_About_ five minutes?" I put forth.

"Yeah, it could've been a little more, could've been less, it was a gamble, and it paid off."

"You mean you bet our lives on a -" I began.

"-Duncan, Roland" Luck cut in, "incoming transmission from Vice Admiral Whitcomb."

"Put him through." Duncan replied. Luck flipped a switch, and the Vice Admiral's voice sounded over the speakers.

"I trust you have the nuke secure and are en route?"

"Affirmative, sir." Duncan quickly responded. "Once there, we should be able to just drop it and go."

"It's not going to be that simple, Lieutenant. The encampment is surrounded by some sort of shield. The bomb will not be able to pass through unaided."

"Shields?" Wesley questioned.

"Yes, similar to the ones on their ships. However, once the bomb is inside, the shields should trap the explosion within, and completely eradicate those inside."

"How are we going to get through those shields?" Duncan demanded.

"You have the engineer, you tell me." The Vice Admiral answered

"I'll work on it." Wesley assured when I looked in his direction.

"Are there other strike teams assaulting the other installations?" I asked Whitcomb.

"No. To my knowledge, nobody even knows of the camps except for those under my command. Too many comms arrays have been disabled, and I have been unable to contact others in command. I only hope they can figure it out before it's too late... Contact me after you're finished, I have a bit of a mess here to attend to." And with that, the Vice Admiral left us with the crippling realization of how much control the Covenant really had. He couldn't even contact the rest of the ground forces.

I watched as the sun set behind us, the sky around us red with dust and fire. Wesley had finished with the bomb, and he had been thinking to himself for a while now. He still hadn't found a way inside the shields.

"They must have a system that allows themselves in, but nothings else. How would we bypass that?" I heard him mumble.

"The Spartan sat up quickly, looking at Wesley. "Radar signals!" He proclaimed.

"Yes!" Wesley answered excitedly. "That would enable them to discern themselves from us. They use the same signals we use for our Friend or Foe tags! We could... How would we bypass that?" he asked the Spartan. "I don't have their signal to replicate. We would need..."

My interest faded, and I returned my attention to the sky. The sun was now out of sight, and I was watching the stars. There were so many of them. I stared in wonder at them as we moved along. I was in the back of the pelican, across from the Spartan, and I could feel the wind in my face. My mind ignored the silver fringe of the pelican in my vision, and focused on the sky. I felt like I was flying, and then my mind began to shift direction. _I wonder if there are more stars than people dead after today. My_ vision blurred as tears came to my eyes. I remembered my sister all those years ago. _Her death times a billion _I thought. That_ was the battle for reach_. As the realization hit me of how important this was, it only hardened my resolve to get revenge.

"...If we had one of the radar jammer prototypes from the generator station, we could use that, but those were all destroyed..." Wesley sighed.

"What about a body? Like a dead elite or something?" Bishop suggested.

"That might work, but it's possible that the Covenant have that covered, dead bodies don't show on our radars, I'm sure it's the same for them." Keiichi answered.

"We also don't have any bodies, or living Covenant." Wesley added. Bishop looked down at the floor, going back into silence.

"Uhh... Roland, you might want to come look at this." Luck yelled back from the front of the pelican. I turned from the view of the sky, and joined her in the cockpit. "I can see the Covenant compound, we're getting close." She pointed forward towards a glowing settlement. It was massive, the shields apparently transparent, like the shields of the Spartans or Elites, but there was a huge, umbrella-shaped cover being projected upwards, which I knew were projecting images of the ground, to hide the installation from orbital view. There was also a small Covenant ship under the cover, dropping what appeared to be vehicles.

"What is it?" Duncan mumbled as he joined us. "...Holy shit!" He exclaimed when he saw it. "The Covenant have more of those?" We were silent as those words sunk in.

"Once we're above it, stop and hover, so we can finish preparing." I spoke up "Wesley and the Spartan are still working on a way to get through the shields."

"They better hurry their asses up!" Luck remarked. "Those Covies are gonna notice us sittin' pretty over their heads. We won't have long once we're there." We rode onward, watching the glowing compound disappear beneath the false canopy that shielded it from overhead view. It was another ten minutes before Luck gave the confirmation that we were directly above it.

I turned to the engineer. "Anything yet?"

"Nothing." Wesley solemnly whispered. "Without some form of Covenant radar, there's no way we're getting in those shields." We crowded around the bomb, focused on nothing more than finding a solution.

Suddenly, the Pelican shook violently, and the sound of an explosion took our attention. I turned to see three Banshees closing in on us, a green cloud slightly obscuring my vision, from where the mortar shot had hit.

"Banshees!" Luck yelled back to us "I can't just sit here, Roland, we need to get outta here!" Bishop grabbed the gun turret and opened fire as a second shot hit us, this time just above the opening in the back. My ear rang as Wesley and the Spartan ran towards him. As I clutched my burning ears, I noticed why. The bomb was rolling towards the open hatch. The Spartan dove, almost falling out of the Pelican himself, and reached outward as the bomb disappeared over the edge.

His hand came back up empty. He stood up quickly, and we both observed one of the Banshees nosing towards the falling bomb. They knew what it was. Keiichi ran to the opening and threw himself out of it.

"Spartan! Are you insane?" I yelled into the comm. No reply sounded. "Get us out of here, Luck!" I yelled over the sound of chain-gun fire. The compartment of the Pelican was peppered with plasma bolts as we clutched the harnesses, struggling to hold on as Luck veered back and forth in an attempt to dodge the mortar fire.

Another direct hit slammed me into the wall, my head started spinning. I noticed the turret fire had stopped. I looked over to see that it was gone, Bishop had just managed to dive to the side and grab a harness as the shot hit us.

"Hang on!" Luck screamed, barely audible over the rattling of the damaged ship. "My engine's hit, we're going down!" I watched as the sky spun violently, flames skirting the edges of the hatch. My head was still spinning from the impact, and I could barely move from the spinning of the Pelican, but I just managed to secure the strap around my torso.

We spun faster and faster, and the others managed to strap in. I looked around the Pelican, and time seemed to almost stop. Wesley was clutching the harness with both hands, he appeared to be crying. Duncan looked reasonably collected. _Not too different from an HEV, _I mused. Stone was closing his eyes tightly and mumbling, and Reynolds looked like he was trying desperately not to vomit. Bishop was praying. _Not too many believers left_, I observed. _Guess it couldn't hurt._. I looked back out of the opening, then down to my feet. I felt a powerful jolt, and heard a loud shearing, accompanied by an explosion, and then I blacked out.

"Spartan! Are you insane?" a voice screamed into Keiichi's ear. He quickly turned the comm off, knowing that he would need complete focus. He angled his body to direct himself to the diving Banshee. He worked himself into a controlled dive and overtook the Banshee. He grabbed the wings, landing right on the Banshee's blind spot. He grabbed the top half of the Banshee as it spun to try and shake him off.

The Spartan pulled, slowly opening the top. He put all his strength into it, and the top half of the Banshee ripped clean off, exposing the elite driver. Knowing the Banshee was now useless, the elite turned toward the intruder, igniting his energy sword. Keiichi did the same, with the modified sword he had used earlier.

The two quickly became locked into a flurry of fists and blades. The Spartan could barely keep the alien from piercing his armor. The Spartan struggled to outmaneuver the warrior, as they fought to overpower each other.

Keiichi managed to grab the elite's hand, and sliced it off with a quick swing of the sword. Its four mandibles opened wide in a cry of pain as its hand and weapon tumbled in free fall alongside them. While the elite was distracted by pain, the Spartan swung again, detaching the creature's other arm. He swung around the creature's neck, onto its back.

He strangled the elite until it was unconscious, and then worked his way to the falling Banshee, clutching the defeated warrior. He planted his feet on the bottom of the craft, and kicked off, propelling himself downward to the barely visible bomb. His extreme weight granted him with a much higher terminal velocity, and he began catching up to the bomb.

He watched as the ground rushed to meet him, instinctively curling up as he passed through the holographic canopy, exposing the purple, glowing compound. Keiichi knew the shield couldn't be far off. He eyed the bomb as he slowly caught up to it.

Finally, it was within reach. He grabbed the bomb and shoved it into the elite's mouth. The alien began to wake up as the Spartan placed his feet of its chest and kicked off. He watched the elite, confused, try in vain to pull the bomb from its mouth, unable to do so without hands. He saw the shield shimmer around the elite as it passed through, taking the bomb with it.

Keiichi braced for impact, luckily lessened by kicking off of the elite. He slammed into the seemingly solid shield, barely able to stay conscious. He stood back up onto his mangled ankle, and pulled out the detonator, which he had grabbed from Wesley just before he dove out of the Pelican. He lifted the ODST's helmet off of his head, and tossed it to the side.

He waited, making sure the bomb had time to reach the ground, and flipped the switch. He watched as a giant fireball appear beneath his feet, boosted by the grunts' methane camps. He felt the shield beneath him weaken as the generators powering it were obliterated.

The shields shimmered, then failed, and the EMP from the bomb knocked out the Spartans shields. He closed his eyes as he fell into the flames.

-

"...Roland..." I heard from a distance. I felt hands grabbing my shoulders, and a blurry image of a moving sky hit my eyes. My vision focused, and I looked up to see Luck dragging me around the crashed Pelican, toward the front. I saw Duncan and Reynolds struggling to hold the turret head while following us around the Pelican. Stone was firing at the two Banshees, who were still pelting us with plasma fire. As I looked past the screeching craft, I saw the glowing Covenant compound. _We failed_, I thought to myself.

As we rounded the Pelican, my head throbbing, Wesley rushed out to help pull me under the nose. Bishop did the same for the turret. The Banshees flew by just above our heads, and dropped a pair of mortar shots.

I saw Bishop, Duncan, Stone, and Reynolds thrown into the air by the force of a nearby shot. The Banshees turned around and aimed at us for another run. Suddenly, both Banshees stopped firing, and nosed into the ground.

"Look!" Wesley exclaimed, pointing behind us. We turned to see a fireball where the Covenant compound had previously been. "The EMP from the blast must've taken out the Banshees! The Spartan got it in!"

"But... How?" Duncan groaned as he stumbled to us "He jumped."

"He must have grabbed the detonator before he did. He must have found a way through the shield." Wesley reasoned.

"So... The EMP took out our comms too." Bishop informed us as he walked up behind Duncan. Reynolds and Stone were right behind him.

"Mine should be fine," Wesley put forth. "I work with technology on a regular basis that is designed to take out comm relays, so I lined my bag with a metal mesh."

"So?" Duncan questioned as Wesley rummaged through his rucksack.

"So it's a Faraday cage, which stops radio waves and EMP's. I'll explain it to you later." He tossed a radio to Duncan, who began to turn knobs in an attempt to get a signal.

"...They took down my bird..." Luck mumbled.

"Vice Admiral Whitcomb, this is Lieutenant Duncan. Do you copy?" Duncan spoke into the radio. "Vice Admiral Whitcomb, we have taken care of the situation, can you hear me?"

"Lieutenant Duncan, this is Major Salvich of FLEETCOM HQ" A voice sounded. "Whitcomb is MIA. What is your situation?"

"We have identified and destroyed a large, Covenant compound, but our Pelican is down, and most of our electronics disabled from the EMP. There are we are in need of evac."

"Hang tight, Lieutenant. We're sending a Pelican to pick you up. What is your location?"

Luck stepped up, citing the last coordinates that showed up on the Pelican's navigation system.

I walked over to see how Stone, Reynolds, and Young were. Surprisingly, even from the crash and the Banshee raid, the only injuries were bruises and a few cuts. As Duncan, Luck, and Wesley spoke with the Major, I sat down with my back against the Pelican.

I lifted my arm to mess with my wrist computer, but it was fried. I leaned my head back and waited. _Tomorrow had better not be as crazy as today. _I thought as I drifted to sleep.


End file.
